Fyodor Dostoyevsky - another possible case of Maladaptive Daydreaming

[Eretaia]

I can't believe no one mentioned this before so I'll just throw this here. I wrote about Florence Nightingale being a potential fantasizer but here's a much more interesting figure: Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The passage you'll read is an excerpt from a short story entitled White Nights: A Sentimental Story from the Diary of a Dreamer by Dostoyevsky himself. The protagonist of the story is a loner and a recluse who daydreamed his life away.

• “Because it begins to seem to me at such times that I am incapable of beginning a life in real life, because it has seemed to me that I have lost all touch, all instinct for the actual, the real; because at last I have cursed myself; because after my fantastic nights I have moments of returning sobriety, which are awful! Meanwhile, you hear the whirl and roar of the crowd in the vortex of life around you; you hear, you see, men living in reality; you see that life for them is not forbidden, that their life does not float away like a dream, like a vision; that their life is being eternally renewed, eternally youthful, and not one hour of it is the same as another; while fancy is so spiritless, monotonous to vulgarity and easily scared, the slave of shadows, of the idea, the slave of the first cloud that shrouds the sun... One feels that this inexhaustible fancy is weary at last and worn out with continual exercise, because one is growing into manhood, outgrowing one's old ideals: they are being shattered into fragments, into dust; if there is no other life one must build one up from the fragments. And meanwhile the soul longs and craves for something else! And in vain the dreamer rakes over his old dreams, as though seeking a spark among the embers, to fan them into flame, to warm his chilled heart by the rekindled fire, and to rouse up in it again all that was so sweet, that touched his heart, that set his blood boiling, drew tears from his eyes, and so luxuriously deceived him!”

• “And so I ask myself: 'Where are your dreams?' And I shake my head and mutter: 'How the years go by!' And I ask myself again: 'What have you done with those years? Where have you buried your best moments? Have you really lived? Look,' I say to myself, 'how cold it is becoming all over the world!' And more years will pass and behind them will creep grim isolation. Tottering senility will come hobbling, leaning on a crutch, and behind these will come unrelieved boredom and despair. The world of fancies will fade, dreams will wilt and die and fall like autumn leaves from the trees. . . .”

Some critics say that the role of a daydreamer in this particular work served to deride Russian Romanticism. Others say that this book symbolized emotional and intellectual maturing of Dostoyevsky as a writer, his personal dismissal of Romantic movement which eventually gave birth to existentialism in his further works. All these interpretations and metaphors aside, this novel is ultimately about the addiction to fantasy where Dostoevsky explores the psyche of the dreamer which was possibly based on a younger version of himself. I don't have a source for this but I remember reading somewhere Dostoyevsky's own words about how he was an insatiable daydreamer during his younger days and how White Nights was partially an autobiographical novel from this standpoint. When referring to White Night as figuratively autobiographical, many people think this book represented Dostoyevsky's dreamy and romantic nature but I'd like to get a bit more literal than that.

I have no doubts that this man was a fantasizer when he was younger. Avoiding social interaction and living like a recluse with a tendency towards nihilistic thinking, running away from reality, trading reality for fantasy are recurrent themes in his works. He knew how to delve into most intimate depths of human psyche but I find it hard to believe that someone who wasn't a daydreamer himself could write a story so spot on such as White Nights. There are so many different things about this book, so many subtle cues that are characteristic of indulging into daydreaming. Fantasy in literature is common and it's not a big deal but this type of fantasy that cloaks one's severe existential crisis is not something you find in books every day. Someone who wasn't a desperate fantasizer himself couldn't have written this.

This is just my opinion so I might be completely wrong. In any case, do read the book! It describes maladaptive daydreaming to a T.

[MatthewR]

I suspected Dostoyevsky. He and Florence Nightingale are usually both typed as INFJ, and I noticed a lot of members on this site also type similarly. I think you're right about a more literal interpretation of White Nights. I liked your statement at the end: "this type of fantasy that cloaks one's severe existential crisis is not something you find in books every day." That resonated with me.

[Eretaia]

What's funny is that they both had in common the thirst for something big. She was sort of an adventurer who couldn't stand a dull life and who felt a strong need to change things bigger than herself - and when she succeeded in this - it's quite possible that her MD lessened, if not disappeared altogether. Dostoyevsky also sought to change things via his books, he covertly criticized society, and he was quite aggressive at that. I think both of them redirected successfully this energy that fueled their proneness to fantasy addiction.

[Ivy White]

Funny that you mention the INFJ thing, I identify as one too. Also, wanting to contribute to something bigger than oneself and criticizing society.

I'll try to get my hands on that book.